Google ran a study on consumer’s local search behavior that gleaned three easy to understand statistics all local businesses need to know.
“Four in Five consumers use search engines to find local information.”
Consumers like to research a store’s address, business hours, product availability and directions to it.
Consumers act after conducting their local search.
“50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on computer/tablet did the same. Local searches lead to more purchases than non-local searches. 18% of local searches on smartphone lead to a purchase within a day vs. 7% of non-local searches.”
“Consumers prefer and act on location-based ads.”
“4 in 5 consumers want ads customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings. More than 60% of consumers have used location information in ads. They say it’s important to have store address and phone number in ads on computer/tablet, and directions and the call button in ads on smartphone.”
In summary, small businesses must engage in hyper-local search engine marketing even if that means just having an online presence in order to make their information easy to find for their local community. Stay tuned for tips on how small business marketers can build an online presence in their neighborhood’s local search ecosystem.
Post by, Omar Elkuka